Foiled plots targeted Olympics, plane, say Chinese officials

A Chinese official said Sunday that authorities foiled an alleged plot to attack this summer's Beijing Olympics after uncovering guns, homemade bombs and training materials during a raid in Xinjiang province.

Wang Lequan, the top Communist party official in Xinjiang, said the operation was carried out Jan. 27 in the regional capital, Urmuqi.

The alleged the aim of the plot was "specifically to sabotage the staging of the Beijing Olympics.

"Their goal was very clear," Wang told reporters in Beijing, adding that "extremist religious ideological materials" were found.

Wang cited no other evidence.

Earlier reports on the raid had made no mention of Olympic targets, although they did say that two members of a gang were killed and 15 arrested.

Security ahead of Olympics tightening

In a separate announcement Sunday, Nur Bekri, the governor of Xinjiang Autonomous Region, said a flight crew prevented an alleged attempt to crash a Chinese jet last week.

The incident occurred Friday morning shortly after the China Southern Airlines flight left the far western city of Urumuqi at 10:35 a.m. local time, Bekri told reporters.

Few details were available.

Bekri indicated that more than one person was involved, but did not specify who was suspected to be behind the attempt, saying it remains under investigation.

Bekri said the crew responded and brought the plane to an emergency landing in the western city of Lanzhou at 12:40 p.m. local time. After about an hour, the plane continued to its original destination, Beijing, and no passengers were injured.

China has ratcheted up security preparations ahead of the August Olympic Games, with the nation's top police official last year labelling terrorism the biggest threat facing the event.

Chinese forces have for years been battling a small separatist movement among Xinjiang's Uighurs, a Turkic Muslim people culturally and ethnically distinct from China's Han majority.

Iron-fisted Chinese rule has largely suppressed the violence, however, and no major bombing or shooting incidents have been reported in almost a decade.